The development of integrated circuitry, particularly RFIDs, has permitted use of such devices in a wide range of applications. RFIDs first appeared in tracking and access applications during the 1980s. These wireless systems allow for non-contact reading and are effective in manufacturing and other hostile environments where bar code labels could not survive. RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets including livestock identification and automated sorting systems because of its ability to track moving objects. They can be operated passively or actively. While both use radio frequency energy to communicate between a tag and a reader, the method of powering the tags is different. Active RFIDs use an internal power source (battery) within an RFID tag to continuously power the RFID, whereas passive RFIDs rely on energy transferred from the reader to the RFID tag to power the RFID.
Passive RFIDs have a limited communication range since they need a strong signal to be received to power the RFID and to respond to the reader, limiting the reader range to 3 meters or less. Active RFIDs have operating ranges of 100 meters or more and thousands of tags can be read from a single reader. Other advantage of active RFIDs is the ability to monitor environmental or status parameters using an RFID with built-in sensors for detecting such things as temperature, humidity, shock, even tampering. Even though passive RFIDs are unable to continuously monitor the status of a sensor since they only have power when read, they can provide very useful information as to the contents of the container or even simple tamper detection. Therefore, both active and passive RFIDs have found a wide range of applications in packaging.
Recently, RFIDs have been used in a product packaging such as containers and closures. The utilization of an RFID with a closure and container combination has a wide variety of applications, including identification of contents, product promotions, storage and dissemination of product information including product processing, quality assurance, including tamper-indication. U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,745, filed Apr. 17, 2002, issued to Carr et al., discloses a product package including a closure and container, wherein the closure has an active RFID mounted thereon. The RFID is disposed on an interior surface of the package. However, a problem existing with this and other current applications of RFIDs in closures is that the RFID can be damaged from the contents of the container; the closure having the RFID can be removed from the container; the RFID can be removed from the container or closure, altered, switched, or tampered with in other ways.